Since time immemorial, man has been looking at the sky, fathoming the dark mysteries it beholds. The vast expanding darkness with glimmering stars have long caught our imaginations.
The sky above has has always served a window into the unknown, a abode to human imagination. Many have just looked into the sky and found a friend in the inanimate giant spheres of dust and dirt.
Our attempts to understand the vastness is wondrous in its own sense;given that we are such a miniscule part of consciousness in this limitless azoic expanse.
In the past many centuries, the attempts to understand the universe have only increased. Every new understanding has made way for a greater curiosity. Some conclusions have been proven correct (as per current understanding),others, some not so much.
So let us have a look at some interesting misconceptions that puzzle even the geeks about the universe!
The misconception concerning the age of Universe
In order to fully grasp the fallacy, you need to know this first-
Light year is the term used by scientists to measure astronomical distances. It is the distance covered by light in an year (aprx 6 trillion miles).
Which means, if Proxima Centauri, our nearest star is 4.24 light years away we can conclude two things-
● It is 4.24 multiplied by 6 trillion miles away from us.
And second and more interestingly,
● The form in which we see Alpha Centauri is not the form in which it exists now.
This is because light causes vision and the time taken by light to travel thus far from Alpha Centauri to earth is 4.24 years. Which means it was in that form 4.24 years ago.
Ok so now let's get to the misconception.
The age of Universe is calculated to be 13.8 billion years old. If this be so, we shouldn't be able to see objects that are 46 billion light years away.
Because it would mean that they existed in that state 46 billion years ago!
But this is not true.
It is possible. Why?
Simply because the Universe is expanding. It is due to this constant expansion that light has to travel longer distance, taking more time to reach us than ideally it should.
The Big Bang Misconception
One popular misconception that is taught to all the children in the school is that- it all started with a bang!
The idea began in the 1920s when cosmologists like Aleksandr Friedmann and Georges Lemaître. With the latter calling this state the “primeval atom”.
Recent studies contradict. Now the scientists believe that the Big Bang was just one stage in an endlessly repeated cycle of universal expansion and contraction.
Prominent string theorist Neil Turok thinks that, “there may be many universes, at once interpolated but separate, like a mixture of gases. These universes are attracted to each other; every few trillions of trillions of years, they collide, explode, expand and contract, then repeat the sequence all over again.”
However his theory hasn't met with much applause in the Christian community. For it crushes their moment of creation beliefs.
Space and Universe are the same thing
This is probably the silliest misconception people have and is generally restricted to the simplifications used for school children.
However, if not cleared, it does stick into the mind well into the adulthood.
Space is the term we use for our 3rd dimension.Many tend to confuse Space with Outer Space. They are not the same thing.
When one moves his arm, he is moving it in Space. When you jump, run, or even use verbal communication, all these acts occur within Space. When you think of Space, it would be better to visualize your living space rather than Outer space. Space itself is not made of matter, but it has matter and non-matter. Pockets in space that have no matter are known as Vacuums, and the most notable vacuum we know of is Outer space.
The universe, on the other hand, depends on what are you reading. The textbook definition of the universe is that it is everything that is, however, the one I use, is the universe is everything that is, was, or ever will be. The reason many find themselves affiliated to this theory is because it is fact that space itself is expanding.
So these were the 3 common myths that needed to be debunked. There are many more. Some say it is even possible that whatever we know about space, time and gravity could all just be illusions of human imaginations!